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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
“Who handed-over Jesus for you?” As we heard the last two weeks, God the Father gave‑up Jesus for us all (Romans 8:32; confer Acts 2:23), arguably through one of Jesus’s Twelve Disciples, Judas Iscariot, who went to, was paid by, and delivered-over Jesus to the Jewish Leaders. And, tonight, at the end of the Reading (Matthew 26:57-27:2), we heard how, in turn, the Jewish Leaders delivered-over Jesus to Pilate the governor (confer Mark 15:1). Various groups of Jewish Leaders are mentioned in different places: the high priest, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders—together they formed the Council, or Sanhedrin, that oversaw religious and some civil matters in Judea (TLSB, 1556). The Jewish Leaders themselves later refer to their having delivered-over Jesus to Pilate (John 18:30), and likewise, in speaking to Jesus, Pilate refers to the Jewish Leaders’ having delivered-over Jesus to him (John 18:35). On the day of the Lord’s resurrection, in their conversation with an unrecognized Jesus, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus refer to the Jewish Leaders’ having delivered-up Him (Luke 24:20), and, after Pentecost, in speaking in Solomon’s Portico, Peter tells the Jews that they delivered-over Jesus and denied Him in the presence of Pilate (Acts 3:13).
That the Jewish leaders were involved is not surprising. For, even before Jesus prophesied of His being handed-over by an un-named intermediate agent, or agents (Matthew 17:22; Mark 9:30; Luke 9:43), Jesus prophesied of the Jewish Leaders as in some sense perhaps the ultimate agent of His passively expressed suffering and rejection (Matthew 16:21; Mark 8:31; Wallace, 432-433). And later, Jesus prophesied of the Jewish Leaders’ handing-over Him to the Gentiles (Matthew 20:18-19; Mark 10:33; compare Luke 18:32), and, in this context, Pilate the governor arguably is the first and most-important of those Gentiles. After Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Jewish Leaders watched Jesus and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch Jesus in something He said, so as to deliver-up Him to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor, the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke uniquely reports (Luke 20:20). And, as Agabus prophesied, the Jews at Jerusalem similarly delivered Paul into the hands of the Gentiles (Acts 21:11; confer Acts 28:17).
In delivering-over Jesus to Pilate, the Jewish Leaders accused Jesus of doing evil (John 18:30), though Pilate at least thought that the Jewish Leaders had delivered-up Jesus out of envy (Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10), perhaps envy that fewer people were following the Jewish Leaders and more people were following Jesus (confer John 12:19). Whatever the Jewish Leaders’ motivation, as was the case with Judas’s motivation, we know that God the Father gave-up Jesus for us all, for our trespasses (Romans 4:25; 8:32; confer Ephesians 5:2, 25). We are sinful by nature, and so we sin by thought, word, and deed, for which sinful nature and actual sin we deserve nothing but death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. As we sang in the Office Hymn, it is our sins for which the Lord must languish; Yea, all the wrath, the woe, He dost inherit, that we do merit (Lutheran Service Book 439:3). As we prayed in tonight’s Psalm (Psalm 38; antiphon: v.15), our iniquities have gone over our head, like a burden too heavy for us, but we confess our iniquity and are sorry for our sin. When, enabled by the Holy Spirit, we are sorry for our sins, trust God to forgive our sins, and want to stop sinning, then God does forgive us. God forgives us all our sins for Jesus’s sake.
Like John the Baptizer, who was “handed-over” before Jesus (Matthew 4:12; Mark 1:14), so also Jesus suffered (Matthew 17:12; Mark 9:12-13). But, unlike John the Baptizer, Jesus was and is God in human flesh, and, out of God’s great mercy and love, Jesus’s suffering was for our forgiveness and so also for our life and salvation. As Jesus had prophesied, He suffered many things from and was rejected by the Jewish Leaders; they condemned Him to death, and, arguably because the Jewish Leaders could not put anyone to death (John 18:31), they handed‑over Jesus to Pilate in order for Jesus to be crucified. And, after having been mocked, shamefully treated, spit on, and flogged, on the cross, Jesus died for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. Jesus died for us, in our place, the death that we deserved. And, on the third day He rose from the dead, in part showing that God the Father had accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. So, we trust God to forgive us not because of what we have done but in spite of what we have done; we trust God to forgive us because of what Jesus has done for us. We trust God to forgive us through His Word in all of its forms.
As God the Father “handed-over” Jesus through men such as Judas and the Jewish Leaders, so Jesus “hands-out” the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins through men such as His apostles and their successors, pastors today. Those pastors read and preach God’s Word to groups such as this group, and they apply the Gospel to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. In all of these ways God forgives sin and so gives life and salvation. As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, the Divinely-inspired St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and to us (1 Corinthians 11:26), we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. In all of these ways, we confess both who we are as sinners and Who God is as our merciful and gracious Lord. We do not deny, as Peter did in the courtyard of the high priest’s house, but we confess as Jesus did before the high priest. With our hearts we believe and are justified, St. Paul writes to the Romans and to us (Romans 10:10), and with our mouths we confess and are saved.
So justified, saved, forgiven by God through His Means of Grace, we in turn forgive one another. When brothers and sisters in Christ sin against us, we are to go and tell them their fault between us and them alone, and then, if they refuse to listen, with one or two others along as witnesses, and finally, to let the Church handle it (Matthew 18:15-18). Arguably in that regard, Jesus says we are to work things out with our accuser quickly, lest we be “handed-over” (Matthew 5:25; 18:34; Luke 12:58), which “handing-over”, when it comes to an unrepentant lack of forgiveness or other sin, can include our being “handed-over” to Satan, for him to execute divine judgment, though that “handing-over” is always with the goal of our repenting (1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:20). When we repent, then we are forgiven, and, already now we can and do experience the peace and joy that come with that forgiveness. And, God works in us to love Him and so love our neighbors. So, we pray to God the Father, as we will in our Closing Hymn, “Thou, my best and kindest Friend, Thou wilt love me to the end. Let me love Thee more and more, Always better than before” (LSB 887:5).
The last two weeks and this week we considered God the Father, Judas, and the Jewish Leaders as those who handed‑over Jesus for you, for your sins, and, in the two Midweek Lenten Vespers Services still to come this year, we will consider two other answers to that thematic question “Who handed-over Jesus for you?” May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit continue to bless our Lenten walk together, to the glory of His Holy Name.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +